Integrated semiconductor circuits have become the primary components of most electronics systems. These miniature electronic devices may contain thousands of the transistors and other circuits that make up the memory and logic subsystems of microcomputer central processing units and other integrated circuits. The low cost, high reliability and speed of these circuits have led them to become a ubiquitous feature of modem digital electronics.
The fabrication of integrated semiconductor circuits typically takes place in a reactive ion etching system, such as a parallel plate reactor or inductively coupled plasma reactor. A reactive ion etching system may consist of an etching chamber with an upper electrode or anode and a lower electrode or cathode positioned therein. The cathode is negatively biased with respect to the anode and the container walls. The wafer to be etched is covered by a suitable mask and placed directly on the cathode. A chemically reactive gas such as CF4, CHF3, CClF3, HBr, Cl2 and SF6 or mixtures thereof with O2, N2, He or Ar is introduced into the etching chamber and maintained at a pressure which is typically in the millitorr range. The upper electrode is provided with gas hole(s) which permit the gas to be uniformly dispersed through the electrode into the chamber. The electric field established between the anode and the cathode will dissociate the reactive gas forming plasma. The surface of the wafer is etched by chemical interaction with the active ions and by momentum transfer of the ions striking the surface of the wafer. The electric field created by the electrodes will attract the ions to the cathode, causing the ions to strike the surface in a predominantly vertical direction so that the process produces well-defined vertically etched side walls.